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www.us-tech.com
September, 2017 ElEctronic Mfg SErvicES
NEO Tech Tackles Mid-Life Design Upgrade for Medical OEM
M
edical electronics hardware requires periodic upgrades; it’s the nature of the beast. In
one such case, a major medical OEM that builds radiology equipment need- ed to incorporate an upgrade. The OEM offers an extensive line of imag- ing equipment and the associated supporting injector systems. Many supply disruption challenges had aris- en as its injector products became rel- atively mature after having been on the market for several years. Developing products that meet
time-to-market, manufacturability, reliability, profitability, and sustain- ability goals is more challenging than ever. Continuously changing technology, global supply chain and economic uncertainties, concern for the environment, and extended life- cycles are causing unprecedented component selection challenges. In the case of this product, vari-
ous electronic components that were originally specified had become obso- lete and could no longer be sourced. In order to continue selling the prod- ucts, the OEM looked to NEO Tech to
NEO Tech was tasked with redesigning obsolete PCBs for medical imaging injector equipment.
give its equipment a mid-life design upgrade, with the goal of extending the product’s useful lifetime by seven years, using currently-available com- ponents.
By Steve Heinzen, VP of Marketing, NEO Tech Engineering Services The OEM’s in-house engineer-
ing team had the capability to per- form the redesign, but the company had other priorities and could not spare the resources at the time, so
the OEM chose to find an outside partner for the job. NEO Tech had to analyze the
lifecycle status for all of the PCB as- semblies in three product families, encompassing over 30 separate PCBs. The target was to extend the expected life of the equipment for an- other 7 years. The activities included a complete BOM lifecycle status as- sessment. Where problem parts were found, new drop-in replacement parts were identified whenever pos- sible. Also, both hardware and soft- ware re-engineering were done when the job required it. NEO Tech also had to produce prototypes for OEM validation.
Partnering with NEO Tech NEO Tech was already the sup-
plier of the PCBs in question, and was intimately familiar with the de- signs and related supply chain chal- lenges. This made the company a log- ical candidate for the redesign. The company also performed some of the initial VAVE and DFM analyses that
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